Telangana HC slams state government over unfilled posts

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday pulled up the state government for wasting both money from the public exchequer and  human resources  by  allowing some government  employees to sit idle, as they are not being given postings or any work for years together.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice SC Sharma and Justice AK Shavili directed the chief secretary to Telangana to submit the details as to  how many employees were  kept waiting for long without assigning any work to them. Full details should be submitted to the court, the bench ordered, and asked the chief secretary to be present before the court on March 14 to explain why this happened.

The bench was dealing  with a PIL filed by Bondili Nagadhar Singh, a retired postal employee from Trimulgherry in Secunderabad.  His contention was that the Telangana Government is forcing many officers to wait unendingly for their posting and paying them salaries -- which is tax payers’ money -- without taking any work from them.  

“Those who are not being allotted any work are either those who were allotted from Andhra Pradesh state, or those who were surrendered to the respective departments, or have joined back from foreign service or deputation or reported back from leave or the non-posting officials on transfer etc. The government is paying crores of rupees  towards their salaries and allowances,” the PIL noted.

The petitioner also said the employees are enjoying the long period of rest even as they get the salaries, allowances and other benefits.

Also, due to the stubborn  attitude of  chief secretary Somesh Kumar and special  chief secretary to the Revenue department, around 60 officers in the ranks of deputy collector, tahsildar, supervisor in revenue, commercial tax and excise department  were waiting for their postings  for  the last two years, the PIL noted.

It also said a few IAS officers  -- Neetu Prasad, Vijaykumar and CTO Dwarakanath Reddy --  have waited for their postings for a long time. “The government has become deaf to the voices of the citizens, who kept running to government offices for years to get their work done,” the petitioner said.

Venkanna, counsel for petitioner. furnished a list of all such officers working in the revenue department, the office of chief commissioner of Land Administration as also the Prohibition and Excise department, who have been kept “Waiting” without any work and are being paid full salaries.

The court expressed  its displeasure  over the attitude of the state government and directed it to file its response with the details of the number of  employees  of  all cadres  being kept waiting without work for long. If the government failed to file the details, the chief secretary shall himself appear before the court to explain matters, the bench ordered.